Trusting the Weatherman at Jeff's

Jeff's Inviting Food and Spirits

1904 North Tustin St. 

Orange, CA 92865

Wow, 52 years is an awfully long time when you think about it. But, here we were celebrating my parents 52nd year of wedded bliss. For me to reach this milestone, I'll have to live to be 96 years old and Katie will be a young 90. Hmm, not sure I'm going to make it to 96, but I'll definitely settle for 40 years with Katie. Anyways, we decided we'd take my parents out to dinner to celebrate their big day, and as usual, it was left to me to pick the place. After very little debate, we headed to Jeff's Inviting Food and Spirits.

My mom actually had gotten me to jot this place down on our restaurant wishlist not that long ago. She's an avid fan of the KTLA Morning News and weatherman Henery DiCarlo. He mentioned on-air that Jeff's was his favorite restaurant. That was good enough for my mom to say that she wanted to give this Orange restaurant a try, so I made reservations on a recent Friday but was limited to the 5pm early evening slot. We raced up here from South OC, with just about five minutes to spare.

Jeff's is located in a pretty good-sized strip mall alongside busy Tustin Street called Tustin Square. They are situated right behind the Weinerschnitzel, and in the same center as Poke District, Darya Persian Restaurant, and Oshima Japanese Cuisine. From what I can gather Jeff's has been open since 2014, and gets four and a half stars on Yelp, with close to 300 reviews. Very respectable.

The man behind the food here is Executive Chef Paul Carcano, and we saw him working furiously behind the bar, where he competes with the bartenders for the elbow room of the confined space. The menu he has put together is classicly American and pretty varied for the amount of space that he has to work with here. There's eight appetizers, with only the bruschetta not having a seafood element added to it. Dinners run the gamut from chicken, pork, seafood, steaks, duck, and one burger is offered. Prices for entrees range between $15 for the burger to $48 for the surf and turf. Most entrees hover right around the $30 threshold.

It's easy to figure out why this restaurant is a tough reservation to get, with it being pretty small. Walking in the door there's a row of high top tables lining the left wall, a ten to fifteen seat bar, with a great view of the open kitchen and bartenders pouring drinks, and lastly, there's another five or so tables, which is where we were seated. Tables are predictably close together, but they make it work here. Let's see if my mom's tip from our local weatherman will yield clear skies or a stormy meal ahead.

A bread basket was the first thing out for us after ordering. The bread was very sturdy and some pieces had some garlic running through it, while others did not. I was also pretty stoked that they gave you a big portion of softened butter, which is something a lot of restaurants don't do. You eventually have to end up asking for more butter, and don't even get me started on butter packets, which almost always come out of the freezer and are hard to spread. Ugh.

Due to Katie's shrimp allergy, and the fact that five of the eight appetizer offerings include shrimp, we skipped that section of the menu and instead went for some salads. As is my usual, when it's offered, I had the Caesar ($7) to start. This was a pretty standard representation of a Caesar. It included chopped romaine, three bigger than usual croutons, a mellow Caesar dressing and some shredded parmesan sprinkled on top. Good, fresh greens, but there could have been more flavor to the dressing here, or perhaps a heavier hand when applying it. Katie opted for the Dinner Salad ($7), which included sliced cucumbers, mixed greens, tomato wedges, mushrooms, and her requested blue cheese dressing on the side. A good side salad that kept her busy until our entrees started to make their way to our table.

Katie will start us off with her pick for the evening, the Chilean Sea Bass ($39). This fish was topped with a lemon, caper, butter and white wine concoction that paired nicely with the very tender and wonderfully seared sea bass. The menu does not state it anywhere, but you do get two sides to accompany your meal. Maybe if they would put that on the menu it would save the servers from having to repeat it over and over, like I observed during our visit. Katie opted for the Brussels Sprouts and the Mushroom Risotto, which are the same sides I got. The risotto is the thing to get here, judging by subtle glances at the nearby tables. The mushrooms contain a great earthiness and the risotto was done perfectly. Katie was very happy with this meal at Jeff's.

Before showing up here, and looking at the menu, I was a little perplexed as to what my mom was going to be ordering for her entree. She's not really too much into seafood, and I can't recall the last time I saw her order a steak. That left her to get this Sauteed Chicken Breast ($26). This chicken was sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with white pepper, rosemary, thyme, and a touch of garlic. The outside portion of the chicken was crispy and the inside was surprisingly tender. I usually shy away from chicken in restaurants because it's usually overcooked, but this one was the exception to the rule. My mom picked the grilled asparagus and the fingerling potatoes as her sides. The potatoes were very bland and forgettable, but the asparagus was crisp and picked up some added flavor from the grill.

My dad had a way easier time coming up with what to eat at Jeff's. He decided to go with the Sea Scallops ($31) for his main course. The four scallops were pan-fried in olive oil and finished with a touch of lemon. My dad really liked this simple presentation, which showcased the fresh seafood here. He was even more over the moon with his selection of side items. He had the popular mushroom risotto but also got a side of wild mushrooms. He was in mushroom heaven with these two. The mushroom risotto was a favorite of his, but he inhaled the wild mushrooms quite quickly. My mom's aversion to mushrooms has led to him not being able to have these fungi too often, so when he does get them, he's pretty excited about it.

I've mentally noted that I do not get duck quite nearly enough, and I was going to remedy that situation by having this Liberty Farms Duck Breast Fillet ($35). This duck came pre-sliced with black cherry and port wine reduction. The first bite I had was a tad overdone, but the rest of the slices were delicious and tender. Duck like this makes me wish I'd get it more often. I got the same sides as Katie, Risotto and the Brussels Sprouts. The sprouts were pretty good, and what I liked was that some of them were crunchy, and the bigger ones were a bit chewier. They kept me guessing and I liked the sauce they used on them.

Since we were celebrating my parents anniversary, they brought us two pieces of cake. Not sure how we scored two, but we will take it. We learned from our server that these cakes are made by someone associated with Rockwell's Bakery, which is a pretty well-known bakery in North OC. Both cakes were good. I think I liked the Chocolate one better than the Carrot, which is a little shocking because I am a big carrot cake fan usually. Both had plenty of icing included, but both could have been a tad moister. Not bad for free cake though.

Our visit to Jeff's was really quite impressive. Not only is their menu pretty large, but they are also churning out some pretty delicious food in such a small space. I do wish they had a little more variety on their appetizer menu, but you could not go wrong with any of the entrees we tried on this evening. Chef Carcano has got it going on. The prices at Jeff's make one think of this more as a special occasion restaurant, rather than a place you will come weekly, although there did seem to be many regulars inhabiting the premises on the evening we were here, mostly hanging around the bar. Service was very good on this evening. Our server Morgan took great care of us and even took the time to learn our names throughout our stay, a very nice touch. Jeff himself was also fairly active checking on his guests at their tables and making sure things were running smoothly. At the end of the day, Jeff's was an excellent spot to celebrate my parents 52nd wedding anniversary.

Out of five Big Mac Burgers, (because this iconic fast food burger came into existence in 1967, the same year my parents got married), five being best to zero being worst, Jeff's Inviting Food and Spirits gets 3.5 Big Mac Burgers.

For more information about Jeff's Inviting Food and Spirits, head to their website here: http://jeffsoc.com/